The present disclosure relates generally to capacity management, and, more particularly, to systems and methods that allocate capacity and generate output request plans for foundry and commodity capacity demands.
In product supply, a supply chain supports material purchase, fabrication of materials into intermediate and finished products, and distribution of finished products to clients. In the supply chain, clients transmit demands to a supplier. The supplier forecasts and plans its internal or external manufacturing schedule according to these received demands, and allocates capacity for product manufacture to satisfy each client. Supply chain management has become important in meeting goals of reduced inventory, increased productivity, and enhanced competitiveness.
There are various business models in the semiconductor industry. For example, semiconductor companies can be classified into fabless businesses, such as IC design houses, pure IC foundries, and manufacturers with both foundry and commodity products, such as specialized memory companies. For all the business models, effective capacity management in supply chain management, without excess capacity loss, has become important for product suppliers requiring control of manufacture or distribution.
For manufacturers with both foundry and commodity products, the foundry and commodity products have different properties. For example, timeliness is not important for the commodity products. The commodity products can be fabricated and stocked in advance. The foundry products, however, must be fabricated and delivered before a committed date promised to clients. Consequently, the capacity allocation between the foundry and commodity products directly impacts the achievement of supply chain management.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams respectively illustrating the capacity allocations for foundry and commodity products when foundry product demands increase and decrease. Manufacturing and distribution facilities have a limited capacity 100. If the foundry product demands an increase, part of the capacity originally allocated for commodity products 110 may be reallocated for foundry products 120, as shown in FIG. 1A. If the foundry product demands a decrease, the unused capacity can be allocated for commodity products 110, for fully utilizing the capacity 100, as shown in FIG. 1B.
Currently, since the above adjustment mechanism is based on experience, and there is no systematic and automatic mechanism for capacity allocation between foundry and commodity products, the capacity may not be fully and efficiently utilized. Additionally, clients cannot know the manufacturing and output schedules for their products, thereby lowering the service quality of product suppliers. Further, the foundry and commodity products are always planned separately. The foundry and commodity products, however, are the same product type, and are not differentiated in a production line. An output request plan comprising foundry and commodity products will make the manufacturing plan complete, and part of the WIP (work in process) or inventory products can be provided for commodity products to advance the scheduled time of foundry product demands. Since there is no efficient mechanism for capacity management between foundry and commodity products, the plan for actual output request cannot follow.